My Showbill

Brita's birthday was last week, and we got her something special... to encourage her to teach me more tricks, and to celebrate the ones I've already learned. I think it's lots of fun! Even Uncle Dad got in on the act with a poem to accompany the gift...

Ladies and Gentlemen,

May I have your attention please!

You're about to see a trained horse act one seldom sees

A spectacular display of equine intelligence and ability

There are a select few horses with this amount of agility

And the trainer so to be commended for an unusual skill

Not many horses can be trained to do what this one will

He'll fetch a ladies glove if she'll let it drop to the floor

Then hand it back to her (you can hear the crowd roar)

Then Brita makes her horse do his bow his special way

Again there is applause for Brita and William P. Grey

I can't wait to see what tricks are on the agenda for the long cold winter months. And special thanks to artist David Miller who added the lettering and portraits of me to the stock Cowgirl print. David isn't a horse person, but he read my blog and did wonderfully capturing my personality!

My celebrity photo shoot

Today one of Mom's relatives, who writes horse books and designs and sells trail riding tack for natural gaited horses, came to take my picture. We've had trouble getting together since the weather has been so awful, but finally today we had all the right people, in the right place, at the same time, with the sun shining. I was chosen as the model because there were a lot of pictures to be taken, and I have the widest range of skills. Also, there was a lot of unfamiliar equipment, and Brita wanted to work with me because she knew how I would react and that we could work through everything together. When you are in an unfamiliar situation, it's always good to have a familiar partner on your side.

Unfortunately, I hadn't taken a bath. It was a bit cool today, and it was such short notice... Brita got out a spray bottle of smelly stuff, and a towel and polished all of my dirty spots right off. Then she gave me a quick haircut and oiled my hooves, and I was ready for my photo shoot. First I showed how to do neck and back limbering stretches. Those are EASY... there are cookies involved.

Then I got dressed out in the middle of the yard. The author lady had brought a whole pile of strange equipment for me to model. I was very good as everyone dressed me up in weird feeling stuff. The saddle was sort of clunky feeling and had lots of straps in places I've never felt straps. I made little snorty noises to remind everyone to be careful, but I stood quietly in the midst of all the activity. She wanted to show how to teach a horse to ground drive without using any fancy equipment. I'm sort of used to fancy equipment, so all this other stuff made me a little nervous at first, but Mom stayed with me until I felt comfortable, and Brita drove me around the arena. I've never ground driven outside before. I'm used to working in long lines inside an indoor round pen, but I haven't done that in months. I was ready to show how a Saddlebred long lines... Yeah Boy! but that wasn't what they wanted. They wanted me to walk around quietly instead. After this was explained to me, I was very well behaved.

Then they put a bridle on that didn't really fit comfortably. The bit was very strange, and had shanks and a curb strap (which I hate) and it was a little narrow. I was supposed to illustrate how some horses open their mouths against the bit. That was easy! I did a lot of that. I tried and tried to spit it out. Phewy... I didn't like that bit. At.All.

Next, they put a drop caveson on me to make me keep my mouth closed and accept the bit. I still wasn't really happy about the bit, but I understood and complied.

Next Brita put our own tack on (thank Heaven) and we took some pictures trotting and walking over poles. I think I may have blinked.

I was so well behaved and cooperative with all the strange requests and commotion going on and Mom and Brita praised me and thanked me, and I thought it fitting to take a bow. When the book is published I'll let you know.

One Trick Pony

Today when Brita came out to get me, she first went to the corner storage and began to take out my pallet and the ground poles. The pallet I am using as a prop to learn to stand on a box. I have gotten quite good at it. Today the addition of the ground poles really interested me. I went and chewed on them a bit while she rolled them around and got them spaced to her satisfaction. Then she went and stood on my pallet in the middle of the arena. I remembered seeing those poles a few weeks ago. That was when she showed me how to walk over them. So, as soon as I saw them I knew what to do. I trotted right over all of them, then reported to center ring to get a piece of carrot. Brita laughed at me. She gave me a carrot, but she said poles were an exercise, not a trick and that I wouldn't be getting a reward each time. I went back and trotted over them again, and returned for a carrot. I got one the second time too, but after that, she shooshed me away and made me continue to "exercise". I don't think that's right. I think anything involving a prop ought to qualify as a trick and I ought to be paid accordingly. After I had my work out, she got off my pallet so I could earn some carrots. Here is a little video clip. Sorry it's so dark, but it was a dreary cold day, so it was dark inside.

About your gloves....

As I stated before, you can pick up your own damned gloves. Once or twice is fine, but after that I feel like you are picking on me and I will continue to toss them as far as I can so you can bend down and pick them up. Nuf said.

Oh, and the Irish Spring soap that someone rubbed all over my favorite chewing places tastes awful. It smelled so fresh and pretty I had hoped it would taste like green spring grass. How wrong I was.

Dear Human....

Pick up your own damned glove. Didn't your mother teach you to pick up after yourself? Maybe you yourself would benefit more from this game of fetch. Yes, I have noticed those 10 extra pounds you are expecting me to haul around. Why don't you.... wait a minute... did you say cookie?

Cure for Cabin Fever

My human friend has been exhibiting some strange behavior this winter. She says it's cabin fever. I can see what she means about that. We don't get outside very often. Even though playing in the snow is fun, the driveway is very icy, and getting to where we can play can be very treacherous. She says that to keep us busy, we are going to explore some higher education.
She already taught me to bow. That was pretty easy. She was able to explain that to me pretty easily. Now I like to show that off for visitors to the barn. She didn't seem to know where to go from there though. She has spent a couple of days pushing and prodding me and testing my reactions to things, but I have no idea where this is going.
The other day she was letting me play with her glove. I like to bite the glove. I do that on my own anyway. Then she dropped it on the ground. That was a curious thing to do. I went over and sniffed it to see what was wrong with it so it had to be thrown away. I couldn't see anything the matter with it, but she thanked me for checking it out and gave me a cookie. A little later on, she dropped it again. I reached down and touched it to point that out, and she gave me another cookie. Well that made sense. If she dropped it, and I went over and touched it so she knew where it went, I got a reward.
Today though, she seemed to not to care that she had dropped it. When I showed it to her, she patted me but no cookie. Well, that wasn't right! I wanted my cookie! I begged and begged for it, but she was really stubborn. She picked the glove back up and dropped it a few more times, but I still hadn't gotten my cookie. I tried to get it for myself, but she boxed my nose and told me "No". I was getting pretty frustrated, and apparently she was getting pretty bored too, because she just stood there and ignored me for the longest time. Finally I gave up and decided to entertain myself. I went over to investigate the glove. I had no idea what's wrong with it. I tasted it to make sure it was still the same glove. Well, when I did that, she told me what a good boy I was and gave me a cookie.
Oh good, we're back to cookie dispensing. But no. She is being really stingy with the cookies today. She boxed my nose. I tried to bow just in case that would loosen her up, but it didn't. So, I went back to the glove again because it was more interesting. I picked it up to play with it. That made her so happy she made a big fuss and gave me another cookie. OH ~ I get it! She wants me to chew on the glove. Well, I can do that. From then on I was very alert to when the glove was dropped, and I got a whole batch of cookies. I even threw the glove around for effect. Of course, I have to drop the glove in order to get back to her pocket for the cookie. That doesn't seem to please her very much, but surely she can understand that I'm in a big hurry to get my cookie.
People can have the oddest ideas, but as long as there is a reward involved, I'm willing to go along with it. In fact, I really like trying to figure stuff out. I study my people very carefully because if you don't you could definetly miss a cookie opportunity.